Police have not yet questioned Madeleine McMann suspect Christian Brueckner over the three-year-old’s disappearance, German prosecutors have revealed.
Brueckner, 43, has been identified as a prime suspect in the ongoing investigation to find Madeleine, who vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007.
The suspect, who is currently serving a jail sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Portugal, has also been linked to a series of unsolved missing persons cases across western Europe.
Hans Christian Wolters, state prosecutor for Braunschweig, yesterday confirmed those in Germany ‘assume there are more victims’ who have not yet been identified.
He also revealed the suspect’s connection to Madeleine is so-far based on ‘circumstantial suspicion’ and Brueckner hasn’t yet been questioned by police, the Telegraph reported.
Police have not yet questioned Madeleine McMann (right) suspect Christian Brueckner (left) over the three-year-old’s disappearance, German prosecutors have revealed
Hans Christian Wolters (pictured), state prosecutor for Braunschweig, yesterday confirmed those in Germany ‘assume there are more victims’ who have not yet been identified
‘It is currently a circumstantial suspicion,’ he said. ‘We have not yet questioned the suspect in this case.’
Authorities believe Brueckner may be involved in the disappearance of multiple children, and are determined to find enough evidence to link him to at least one case.
But German laws allow a suspect to access their case file as soon as they are identified, and prosecutors want to prevent Brueckner’s legal team from seeing the file until they are ready to charge him.
This is why authorities have yet to confirm whether Brueckner is a suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine, despite his name and photograph being widely reported.
Brueckner has also been linked to the disappearances of six-year-old René Hasse in the Algarve in 1996 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke in Germany in 2015.
Inga, often described as the ‘German Maddie’, disappeared without a trace from a forest in Schönebeck, Saxony-Anhalt, during a barbecue when she was five years old. This was 70 miles from Brueckner’s home in Braunschweig.
This map shows where 43-year-old Brueckner lived on the Algarve in relation to Praia da Luz
The last photograph taken of Madeleine shows her smiling next to her little sister Amelie and their father Gerry at 1.30pm on May 3, 2007 in Portugal, the day she went missing
René went missing while on holiday in the Algarve, Portugal when the suspect lived in the region in 1996. His father has reportedly been told the investigation into his disappearance has been reopened.
The Madeleine McCann suspect drove regularly between Bavaria and the Algarve in Portugal and police are now tracing his movements to investigate if he could be linked to other cold case files.
Prosecutors in Belgium have confirmed they are investigating if he was connected to the murder of 16-year-old Carola Titze, whose body was found in sand dunes in De Haan, near Ostend, in 1996.
The teenager was said to have met a German man while she was on holiday in the town and was seen with him at a disco just days before her murder.
In Portugal, police face pressure to re-examine the case of Joana Cipriano, eight, who disappeared in 2004 from Figueira, seven miles from Praia da Luz. Her mother and uncle allegedly confessed to her killing but her mother has since said she was forced to admit to the crime by police who beat her.
The Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in 2007
Brueckner has been linked to the disappearances of six-year-old René Hasse (left) in the Algarve in 1996 and five-year-old Inga Gehricke (right) in Germany in 2015
Brueckner had lived in an area around 10-minutes drive away from Praia da Luz when Madeleine went missing from a holiday apartment in 2007.
In 2005, two years prior to the infant’s disappearance, he raped a 72-year-old American woman on a waterfront villa less than a mile from the Ocean Club hotel from where she disappeared.
Prosecutors in Germany are now desperately trying to build a case against Brueckner, who is eligible for parole this weekend but unlikely to be granted a release from custody.
The suspect – who has not been named by German authorities – left Portugal and returned to his homeland not long after Madeleine disappeared 13 years ago.
Brueckner has been linked to other unsolved child disappearances since he became the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case
It was in a German bar exactly ten years later – on the anniversary of the three-year-old’s disappearance – that Becks-drinking Brueckner turned the spotlight on himself.
As Madeleine’s face flashed up on the bar’s television screen, he reportedly turned to his drinking partner and claimed he ‘knew all about’ the case.
He is alleged to have said something to suggest he knew what had happened to the missing child, according to a report on Sky News.
Later, it is claimed, he showed his companion a video of himself raping an elderly American widow in Portugal in 2005. The friend contacted German police.
Brueckner swiftly became of interest to the detectives probing Madeleine’s disappearance. It was three more years before his name became public.
One friend told the Mail that Brueckner’s ‘life situation’ was ‘a bit chaotic’, but added that ‘if everything is true then he was indeed a master of illusion’.
It comes as the British ex-girlfriend of Brueckner was quizzed by police, as a close friend last night raised fears she is terrified he will ‘come after her’.
The unnamed woman, from Berkshire, is said to have lived in Praia da Luz where she dated Brueckner for around a year from 2004.
She is not a suspect in the case, but according to reports has agreed to cooperate with police and has twice spoken to detectives investigating her former partner.
The mother-of-two, who is still living in Portugal, was interviewed last year by police as part of the investigation into Brueckner, and, according to The Mirror, has spoken to them again in recent days after the 43-year-old was identified as a prime suspect in the Madeleine case.
Born in 1976, Brueckner was said to have been raised ‘in a home’ and committed his first burglary in his home town of Wurzburg in Bavaria when he was just 15.
Within two years, he was convicted of sexually abusing a child, earning him a two-year youth sentence in 1994. A report claimed he served only part of this term.
Brueckner went on to notch up convictions for drug dealing, driving under the influence and without a licence – before taking off to the Algarve after turning 18.
It was revealed today how an unnamed senior Portuguese police official had said Brueckner was not involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.
The statement was made to respected Spanish newspaper ABC by an unnamed Portuguese police chief.
The officer, described as a former Policia Judiciaria chief with in-depth knowledge of the Madeleine McCann probe who still works for the force, told ABC: ‘There’s no evidence Christian Brueckner is involved in her disappearance.
‘Strong enough reasons to be able to charge him were never found.
‘People talk about surprises in the Madeleine McCann case with the capture of this German man, but for me it’s no surprise.
‘This individual was already investigated around four years ago.’